Oh forgot to mention bring latex gloves or something some computers are downright putrid. Opened a old Pentium machine up once and there was so much dust and dead bugs... You couldn't even see the motherboard... Had a dead rat in one before too....
I worked at a computer shop for a couple of years, so everything I say is based on first hand experience. I had a blast while doing that job, even though it didn't pay amazingly well.
1. You cannot fix stupid, but you should try.
90% of what you will work on, is old hardware and budget laptops, owned by people who are computer illiterate. People do very stupid stuff with their computers, and you will potentially get blamed alot for their inability to use a computer properly, to take care of their own stuff. You need to be able to talk in a way anyone can understand, make people feel like you care, and don't be a nerd to them. 40% of this type of job is actually being able to fix a computer. The rest is customer service.
2. What you think is best, is not always best. Be careful about recommending hardware upgrades etc to customers. Customers, again, have the final say, are generally computer illiterate, and you need to be able to find the balance between what you know is best for them, and what they will be okay with. You cannot recommend a $200 GPU for most customers you will run into. Most customers only spend $350 on black Friday for their crappy dell, and if you start saying they need $400 in parts to "get it up to date" (which by the way, hardly anyone will care about that as long as it plays youtube videos and facebook - they are happy) you will loose a customer to the local big box store to buy another crappy dell.
3. Don't be annoying to your "boss" and "coworkers" by being a know-it-all. 90% of what you learned in college about computers is worthless when it comes to fixing computers as a profession. Your boss and coworkers have a wealth of knowledge that you can ONLY get from experience. This knowledge covers everything from being able to diagnose 50% of problems within a minute of hearing the symptoms, knowing how to pull apart a particular model of laptop, to knowing how best to communicate to certain "problem customers". Again, it's only 40% ability to fix a computer, the rest is customer service anyway.
4. Recognize there is a business. It's very easy to give free advice, fix stuff at the front counter, spend 30m on the phone with someone, just out of the goodness of your heart. Every business is different, but you do have a business to fund, and you need to make money for that business.
5. Time is a factor. Spending 3 days to fix a computer like you normally would for a relative will not fly in most shops. 24 hrs is what we had from the time we took it off the waiting line before we had a diagnostic and options for the customer. In most cases it was within minutes. You diagnose and quote prices and fixes BEFORE you do most of the fixing (sometimes you need to fix some things before you can know for sure what the problem is). GOOGLE IS YOUR FRIEND.
6. Multitasking is sometimes crucial. I would work on 4-6 computers at the same time, based on the involvement needed. Virus removals are pretty straightforward and I can have scans and fixes running at the same time I was replacing a broken screen or doing a data recovery or building a computer.
7. Virus removals, Computer tune ups (it's slow, can you make it faster?), broken screens/keyboards (lots of angry people in this world...). This will take up 95% of your work. The rest is bizarre random stuff (these are the best).
8. Have a strong stomach. Open up a 10 year old computer owned by a chain smoker, and you will want to puke. Open up a laptop and see the keyboard, you will also want to puke.
9. People will cry because of you, and people will yell at you. Baby pictures are really important - you will realise this when you recover the lost files from a broken external drive, or when you have to call a lady and tell her they are gone forever. Just be ready for the customer service stuff.
10. Have fun! Like I said, I had a blast with that job, and 3 years later I still keep in touch with my coworkers to play video games, hang out, etc.
Hope this helps!
CASE: NZXT Tempest 210 Black Steel Mid Tower PSU: Corsair CX600 80 plus Bronze (non modular) MB: ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0 CPU: AMD FX-4130 Zambezi Quad-Core 3.8GHz HS: Stock AMD heatsink RAM: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unregistered DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Server Memory Model CT2KIT51272BD1339 HDD 1: 6x Seagate NAS HDD ST3000VN000 3TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
Software and Configuration: I am running Freenas and running in RAID-Z2. Total drive space of 18 TB after the raid that leaves 10.6TB useable.
Usage: Anime storage. Game ISO storage/steam backup. FTP. My main rig, and laptop also do automated backups to this machine. Roughly 4.5 TB used currently. Backup: No offsite backup as my upload speed is terrible. If my connection improves I will add offsite.
Additional info: I do run a PLEX server off it when I need it. Freenas is already a RAM hungry little OS though. Normally 8GB is enough for it. When you fire up the PLEX service though it starts to slug a little. Need to add another 8GB.
Photo's:
More photos and drive screenshots can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/3yShQ
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